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WALTHAMSTOW: Confusion over traffic lights "could kill someone"

3:22pm Tuesday 22nd September 2009 in Waltham Forest News By Carl Brown

The traffic lights at the corner of Hoe Street and Selborne Walk The traffic lights at the corner of Hoe Street and Selborne Walk

PEDESTRIANS are at risk from injury or death because of confusing traffic light signals at a busy road junction, it has been claimed.

For the last few weeks, permanent lights for traffic and for pedestrians have not been working at the junction of Hoe Street and Selborne Walk, in Walthamstow.

Temporary lights have been put in place until works are completed.

But for traffic turning left from Hoe Street into Selborne Walk, one traffic light is partially obscured and the other has been turned away from traffic to face pedestrians crossing from the bus station side of Selborne Walk.

This means some motorists only see the covered permanent lights and assume there are no lights, and drive straight on.

Pedestrians crossing Selborne Walk north from the railway station have no lights whatsoever to guide them as to whether they can cross or not, while those crossing in the other direction are faced with the lights intended for the traffic, so green means “stop” and red means “go”.

The net result is pedestrians are crossing the road, unaware that motorists are likely to fly around the bend.

Tom Westerdale, 69, of Brookdale Road, Walthamstow, has complained to Transport for London about the lights.

He said: “It is really confusing, crossing Selborne Work is dangerous, it is almost as if people are being instructed to get themselves killed.

“It is not too bad for people like me, who can dash across the road, but for mothers with pushchairs its a problem.”

Comments(13)

Touchwood says...
3:40pm Tue 22 Sep 09

Sounds about right for this local authority not being able to sort things out with TfL!

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blighty mighty says...
5:17pm Tue 22 Sep 09

Well guess what! The lights at the top of Snarsbrook road n'right near a primary school' have been on constant RED for weeks and the traffic is haveing to just go through when ever.

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Brisbane says...
10:11pm Tue 22 Sep 09

Speaking as a pedestrian, this situation is an absolute disgrace. With no pedestrian lights working, walkers have no choice but to cross three lanes of traffic with their fingers crossed, just hoping the lights contolling the traffic do not change half-way across.
I'm amazed that no one has been hit yet, but it will happen if this situation is not addressed soon.
If and when that happens someone senior at TfL should be prosecuted for negligence.
How can it take weeks to finish whatever inconsequential works are currently going on?
Even if there is justification for that, TfL should provide staff to physically control the crossing until the pedestrian lights are working again.

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dbisping says...
9:49am Wed 23 Sep 09

Signs posted at the Central said this work would take three weeks, it's been nearly six now, all last week there seemed to be no sign of anyone working there, the temp lights are badly phased so that buses swinging around to get back down Selbourne Road are often blocked. It's been pretty bad!

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Maurice Stoker says...
11:30am Wed 23 Sep 09

There is nothing wrong with these lights, if pedestrians and motorists just drove and walked cautiously, accidents would not happen. There are some fragrant dangerous acts committed by both parties all day long.

People hurrying along to go about their business and trying to reach their target (for instance the Pie and Mash shop for eels, mash, pies and lashings of liquor) forget everything else and next minute they are eating hospital food instead of eels and so on.

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xexuxjy says...
12:16pm Wed 23 Sep 09

I think there is something wrong with the lights when there is no indication at all for when it's safe for pedestrians to cross. Particularly coming from St Marys Road it's a huge gamble.

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
12:57pm Wed 23 Sep 09

xexuxjv has highlighted the key point. Not only is it dicing with death for pedestrians to cross from St Mary Road, in my view it is even more dangerous crossing from the station side of Selborne Road to the pub because the traffic comes round that corner from Hoe Street almost non-stop.
Please, Guardian, try to find out when the lights will be back in order.
Oh, and ignore Maurice's typically idiotic comments!

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DaveE17 says...
1:05pm Wed 23 Sep 09

Yes, this is extremely dangerous for the reasons stated by all except the correspondent who clearly thinks the current Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' approach to traffic calming is the safest and most satisfactory approach. I did laugh at the thought of "fragrant dangerous acts committed by both parties all day long", though. Maybe if everyone stopped overdoing the eau de cologne that would sort things out nicely.

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Maurice Stoker says...
3:36pm Wed 23 Sep 09

It is common knowledge that too much street furniture causes accidents.

Boris the finest Mayor we have ever had is experimenting with schemes to do away with it all so that only bicycles essentially are used and looking at further traffic calming measures including 'Twenty plenty' and Chicanes.

With the Church converting the EMD up the road it is essential that all car control is in place before the Church is in use hogging up the area with cars, coaches, buses, and so on and to keep the area free from demonstrations outside the EMD whilst the building work goes on. If a grown man cannot cross this road what hope has he got of teaching his children? Have we really got to go back to Tufty? Look right and look left, look right again and if it is safe to cross, walk quickly across, do not run, do not eat from the bargain bucket of chicken or the kebab, pizza, or burger you have just bought and do not stop to look for a dustbin to throw in the latest copy of Waltham Forest Life Magazine.
Get to the other side and thank the Lord you have made it.

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DaveE17 says...
4:04pm Wed 23 Sep 09

"Boris the finest Mayor we have ever had". Irony is alive and well in this thread.

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Maurice Stoker says...
4:50pm Wed 23 Sep 09

DaveE17 wrote:
"Boris the finest Mayor we have ever had". Irony is alive and well in this thread.
He is since Dick Whittington.

I have ignored that bore on LBC droning on about Boris like he has eaten 15 bitter lemons.

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Helen, Walthamstow says...
12:43pm Thu 24 Sep 09

"If a grown man cannot cross this road what hope has he got of teaching his children? Have we really got to go back to Tufty? Look right and look left, look right again and if it is safe to cross, walk quickly across," says Maurice.
He hasn't mentioned "and look behind you round the corner into Hoe Street" which is what you have to do to cross Selborne Road - nor mentioned that by the time you have walked the few steps to view the oncoming traffic from the newsagent's shop, you have to start all over again - ad infinitum.
I hope Maurice doesn't get run over while he acts out his memories of childhood in the days when there was far less traffic on the roads. The sight of blood is upsetting for the onlookers.

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hotredman says...
5:18am Tue 13 Oct 09

Does not make a difference to pedestrains there. Even when the fixed lights were working most of them are stupid especially the commuter type train station idiot that comes out the station in the evening and could not give a s### and charges across the road regardless of the traffic light coming or vehicles passing.
As for the traffic lights the situation is flipping ridiculous. It has been over 2 months to install some new traffic signals which on a daily basis has traffic tailing back in all directions due to the moronic timings and incompetance of LBWF. I amnot suprised people are going through the red lights there and getting wee wee'd off waiting, the situation is ridiculous.
Hackney has temporary traffic lights near the town hall, but has got them working on its existing timings while new ones are being put in, but incompetant Waltham forest cant do any better.

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